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Ranking Klipsch speakers


x97lyons

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So I have often wondered about what is the speaker heiarchy with Klipsch. I currenlty have KG speakers and beleive they are probably somewhere near the bottom of the list of Klipsch speakers. Si I am wondering what is the heiarchy. Lets say a multipurpose speaker for home theater mains or music.

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My rule of thumb is what sounds the best is the best. I have not heard all of the Klipsch line-up, nor will I ever probably do so. This forum seems to be heavily heritage series biased...but for good reason. A lot of people also like some of the "Classic Klipsch" which I would describe as earlier speakers that PWK did not design by himself, but still maintained the philosophy. I am sure there are better people to answer the history of this, but I think of the heritage as the Heresy, Cornwall, Rebel, Shorthorn, La Scala, Belle and the Klipschorn. Others falling into the classic catagory would be the KG Series, Forte, Forte II, Chorus, Chorus II, Quintet and the Tangent Series. Klipsch has since produced speakers with varying price points such as the Synergy series, Refrence series, Icon series and the newest Palladium series, KLF series as well as Pro models. I think all of them have tried to maintain the Klipsch high efficiency philosophy. But, sound is subjective, and not everyone can afford Klipschorns, so the answer to a heirarchy is kinda a moot point...what sounds the best at what you can afford is probably the best for any given person.

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A lot of us here have a 'bang for the buck' philosophy, where a Cornwall rates excruciatingly high due to their very reasonable used price, lack of placement issues, and full range capability.

This 'ranking' has been attempted here before, it rarely results in fisticuffs but does bring out the loyalist in most of us.

M

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"This 'ranking' has been attempted here before, it rarely results in fisticuffs but does bring out the loyalist in most of us"

LOLOL!!! How true!!! and the WAF factor also enters into the equation.....

In a way, it really is the "Godzilla Syndrome".... Size does count.... Colter has a very good point about used Cornwalls... For the money (at the current prices), they could very well be the best bargain in the Klipsch lineup (or actually any line-up). That being said, Cornwalls (or any of the other "beasts") may not be the best solution for space factors or WAF, etc. Just to throw it out there.... don't overlook the used Heresy.

Unlike so many other speakers, the Heritage series, and in particular the Heresy, are extremely easy to work with. Properly re-capped, properly sealed, good drivers (maybe a new pair of tweeters or the requisite diaphragms for the originals) they are one of the best values for the money. Set up properly, they will do a very, very good job and IMHO, rank up in the top 10 for those reasons.

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Ahhhhhhhh, the age old question, what's the best? That begs the age old question, best for what? For my application it was a small heritage but that included factors such as size, cost, waf and technical details. So it's impossible to say what's the best without knowing lots of information.

Thanx, Russ

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Hi, everyone: I tend to rank speakers based foremost on my opinion of their sound quality, first, followed by appearance, etc. after that. In my somewhat-limited listening history with the immense variety of Klipsch speaker lines, I personally have placed the Paladium line as my top choice for its quality of sound and realism. Next I would rank three Heritage models second, third and fourth respectively; the K-Horn, LaScala II and Cornwall III. Next, I would rate my own Reference series system (RF7-based) as fifth. You may ask then, "Why then did I settle for 5th place?" That's easy: Paladium's did not exist back in 2004 when we purchased our system (nor could we afford them if they did) and except for Heresy III's (which we have in our garage), none of the other Heritage series models will fit into the confined "speaker footprint" of our home theater. However, the happy note here is that, given our HT's room size (10.5w x 19L x 7h) with it's limited speaker placement options, I could not expect the first through fourth-place models to perform at their optimal potential in such a small space with close proximity seating. Therefore, I consider our RF7-based theater setup to be a first place win! There is really nothing I would change about the sound at this point. It's given us 5 years of sonic bliss and there's no reason to mess with perfection as far as I am concerned. - Glenn

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Just my opinion, but I think only Khorns need a corner, while other Klipsch speakers like a corner.

As well, I think pretty well all speakers can use the help of a sub.


Who'd have guessed that speakers have needs and wants, like most of their owners?

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